Mahzun Cenk, Cultist

Mahzun Cenk is an avid adherent to the gospel of pleasure as preached by the Cult of the Silken Veil. Formerly a bosun on a spice freighter, Cenk was drawn into the Cult during shore leave. His bloated neck and face are sure signs of participation in pleasure sessions at the Cult temple. 

The Wolf of House Ulanti

Every noble house needs a master of the hunt. A grizzled and deadly huntsman who can assist his Lord in the finer arts of stalking prey, selecting a suitable trophy beast, making the killing shot.

Lope is Huntsman to Lord Greiss of House Ulanti. He is lethal - a deadeye shot, as well as a patient and loyal servant. It is rumoured that he was once an off-world bounty hunter of some renown. His scarred and patched body reinforces that rumour, but none know for certain.

A Mixed Bag - Small, Dangerous and Italian!

Over the course of the weekend I spent some time queuing up and basecoating figures which needed to be finished to meet some deadlines. My wife went out last night, so I had a free evening to get some of them finished.

First up is Sneek - a new ratling-type abhuman for my Ordo Malleus Inquisitor band.

SME-601 - Surveillance Servitor

Servitors are created for a myriad of menial functions - reptitive labour, heavy lifting, mechanical interface or even as personal guards. Most follow a common pattern, based on vat-grown clones or mind-wiped criminals. A select few are more specialised, and SME-601 is an example of such. Created from the body of a feral child, SME-601 incorporates advanced tracking, recording  and broadcasting equipment in its over-sized skull. Its small size and agile form allows the servitor to conceal itself in shadows and crevices, hang from roof beams and girders, or lurk in pits, wells and sewers; to watch the unwary, unseen.

Colony 87 Lady Greiss

After all the rioters I painted earlier in the week, I wanted to spend a bit more time over a figure last night, so I pulled out another figure from the Colony 87 set - this time Lady Greiss.

I wanted to replicate the pallette used previously on Lord Greiss and Anamuria, although I struggled to work out which colour to paint where initially. In the end I went for cream armour, a white robe, blue cloak and gold details. Creaster got a lovely little canary yellow romper suit, as is traditional for babies!

Burnin' and Lootin' - BOYL Rioters

With Bring Out Your Lead 2015 just around the corner, I needed to make the final push and complete the figures I need for my game 'Anarchy in the UH'. The game is based on Space Hulk, with rioters taking the role of the hordes of genestealers. I'm sure you can imagine that a rampaging mass of Necromundan civilians and underhivers, high on spook, frenzon and whatever else, would be a terrifying sight.

Sadly, there aren't many sci-fi non-combatants, and precisely zero ranges of sci-fi rioters. I figured that for the purposes of my game, modern rioters would suffice - players' focus will be on ensuring their gangs (Terminator squads) survive.

I ended up plumping for the Offensive Miniatures rioting mob. An investment of £50 landed me with 39 rioters, plus a dog (and a pair of wheelie bins). The figures aren't perfect (not sci-fi, a touch small), but they have the major advantage of being cheap. They also perform the required function of looking like a suitable horde of angry civilians.

The mob runs riot through the port, catching an unfortunate squad of law-enforcers!

Colony 87 Lord Greiss

You may be aware that I recently ran a Kickstarter for a small range of sci-fi civilian figures called Colony 87.

I always meant to paint up a set of figures as the Kickstarter was running, but time and events conspired against me, and I didn't manage to paint a set up before the Kickstarter ended. As a treat to myself for finishing all the terrain for the BOYL game, I decided to paint up Lord Greiss from the range. Whiskey Priest over at the The Leadpile had already painted up a gin-soaked version in green and pink. I decided my version was going to be perhaps an older, more severe planetary Governor. Here's the results:

"Robocop" and "K9" - Cybernetic Reinforcements for my Adeptus Arbites

After painting terrain almost exclusively in June, and not really wanting to face up to the task of batch-painting 40 rioters for the game I'm running at BOYL in a few weeks time, I decided to take a break.

As luck would have it, I needed to paint up a pair of figures for the July Yaktribe competition. As I won the previous competition by entering Anamuria and her companions, I got to choose the theme for the current competition: Rise of the Machines. As I'd selected the theme, I figured it was only right that I entered. The rules are very simple: make and / or model an Artificial Construct of any type!

Introducing N.A.T.E. (Necromundan Artificial Tactical Enforcer) and C.U.R.R (Canine Utility Retrieval Robot). Cyber-mastiffs are used by the Adeptus Arbites and Enforcers throughout the Imperium. Some are fully artificial constructs, others are cyborgs, more akin to servitors. C.U.R.R. is the latter - a feral canine enhanced with cybernetic implants and simple tracking/retrieval programming.

C.U.R.R. and N.A.T.E. - Adeptus Arbites Cybernetic Division.

Coming to the BOYL - the Importance of Playtesting

Yesterday, my good friend Graham was kind enough to not only host me at his place for a day of gaming, but also willing to playtest the game I'll be running at 'Bring Out Your Lead' in a few weeks time at Wargames Foundry.

The game is designed to use the compact 1st edition Space Hulk rules mechanics, with a shift of setting to Necromunda. 4 'escort' players will attempt to safely usher a VIP to safety and up and out of the Underhive. In the meantime 1-2 players will control rampaging mobs of rioters, high on spook or other nefarious narcotics. Hopefully it's apparent enough that the 'escorts' will play as Space Marine terminator squads, while the 'rioters' will play as genestealers.

So, with my draft modified rules in hand, and the playing area set up, we set about giving the game a throrough run through.

Graham deliberates on the best course of action in the first turn.